Preconfigured Sender Communication

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are described for allowing a calling party to provide a provisional message for a called party. In one aspect, when the calling party places a call to the called party and does not receive an answer, the calling party may choose to have the provisional message delivered.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/799,567, filed Mar. 13, 2013, and titled “PreconfiguredSender Communication.” This application is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

When attempting to establish a call or other type of interactive voicecommunication, the calling party may have a specific message to provideto the called party. In such a circumstance, it is often useful to getthe correct message to the called party. Typically, mail systems havebeen used for this purpose. In certain situations, however, voice mailmay not be a first choice. For example, a calling party may want tospeak with a called party directly, and if refused or unable to connect,may be unprepared to leave a voice mail. Thus, there's a need to be ableto leave a preconfigured provisional message when an event such as afailed call attempt occurs.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features.

In some embodiments, a system may receive, from a calling party device,one or more voice, textual, and/or video messages or other types ofprovisional messages for a mailbox system of a called party device. Aninstruction also may be received to enable sending the voice, textual,and/or video voice message to the mail system of the called partydevice. In one aspect, a request to complete a voice call session withthe called party device may be sent. If a communication containing anindication of a refusal or any other type of unavailability of therequested voice call session and an indication of call forwarding to themail system of the called party device is received, the preconfiguredvoice, textual, and/or video message may be sent to a mail system of thecalled party device responsive to the communication containing theindication of the unavailability of the requested voice call session andthe indication of call forwarding to the mail system of the called partydevice. The voice, textual, and/or video message that is sent to themail system of the called party device may include an audio signal,e.g., a voice mail message of the calling party, to accompany the voice,textual, and/or video message.

In another embodiment, a calling party device may send a voice, textual,and/or video message or other types of provisional message for a mailsystem of a called party device. The voice, textual, and/or videomessage may be for a group of called party devices. A communicationrequesting a voice call session with the called party device may besent. An instruction to enable the server to send the voice, textual,and/or video message to the mail system of the called party device maybe sent. In some embodiments, such an instruction may be sent prior tothe request for the voice call session. In other embodiments, such aninstruction may be sent in response to a communication from the mailsystem of the called party containing an indication of a refusal or anyother type of unavailability of the requested voice call session and anindication of call forwarding to the mail system of the called partydevice. An audio signal may accompany the voice, textual, and/or videomessage.

The summary here is not an exhaustive listing of the novel featuresdescribed herein, and are not limiting of the claims. These and otherfeatures are described in greater detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become better understood with regard to the followingdescription, claims, and drawings. The present disclosure is illustratedby way of example, and not limited by, the accompanying Figures in whichlike numerals indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network on which variousfeatures described herein may be used.

FIGS. 2-3 illustrate example communication diagrams showing messagingaccording to at least some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process flow for implementing variousfeatures described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process flow for implementing variousfeatures described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of various illustrative embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a parthereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, variousembodiments in which aspects of the disclosure may be practiced. It isto be understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and structuraland functional modifications may be made, without departing from thescope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network on which variousfeatures described herein may be used. The system of FIG. 1 may bevariously configured to include any wire or wireless telecommunicationnetwork 112. In one exemplary embodiment, a first communication terminal101A (e.g., a wireless and/or wireless phone, table, laptop, watch,and/or other similar device) and/or a second communication terminal 101B(e.g., a wireless and/or wireless phone, table, laptop, computer, watch,and/or other similar device) may be variously configured such as tocommunicate with each other either directly and/or through one or moreother communication systems such as telecommunication network 112. Inone exemplary embodiment, the telecommunication network 112 may includeone or more systems such as a front office, local equipment company(LEC), cable headend, router, wireless communication network, server,local exchange, PABX, and/or other network interface device(s) 111A,111B. The one or more network interface device(s) 111A, 111B maythemselves be coupled together using any suitable network such as theInternet, internet, intranet, public device network (e.g., PSTN),private device network, plain old device service (POTS), and/or othersuitable wire and/or wireless network(s) 109. The network interfacedevice(s) 111A, 111B and/or network(s) 109 in some exemplary embodimentsmay be aggregated together to form telecommunication network 112.Network interface devices 111A and 111B may be implemented in variousways including using one or more processor(s), memory(ies) and one ormore network communication interfaces, with the processors beingconfigured to execute instructions (hardwired and/or stored asexecutable code on any appropriate medium) to carry out the operationsof the network interface devices as described herein. Network interfacedevices 111A and 111B may include respective mail systems forcommunication terminal(s) 101A and 101B, and/or mail systems may beintegrated directly into communication terminal(s) 101A and/or 101B.Network interface device 111A and/or network interface device 111B maybe included within a cloud-based network. Network(s) 109 may be acloud-based network with various storage components.

In the example of FIG. 1, the telecommunication network may be variouslyconfigured such as wide area wireless access network (e.g., includingbut are not limited to cellular device networks, third generation (3G)mobile networking, telecommunication networks, EDGE (Enhanced Data ratefor GSM Evolution) networks, and EVDO (EVolution Data Optimized)networks, etc.). Accordingly, network interfaces 102A and/or 102B mayinclude a transceiver configured for direct communication with thetelecommunication network 112. The communication terminals may includeprocessor(s) 103A, 103B, memories (e.g., RAM, ROM, FLASH, fixed and/orremovable storage drives) 104A, 104B, user interfaces (e.g., touchscreens, keypads, voice recognition, etc.) 107A, 107B, audio devices(e.g., speaker(s)/microphone(s)) 105A, 105B, processor(s) (e.g., logic,software, RISC processor, microprocessors, general purpose processors,special purpose processors, codecs, audio codecs, video codecs, etc.)103A, 103B, and/or other suitable peripheral devices (e.g., cameras,audio outputs, GPS devices) 106A, 106B. Any of the devices andoperations associated with communication terminals 101A, 101B may bephysically embodied in the form of instructions (e.g., executable codeand/or hard-wired logic) associated with and/or executed by processor(s)(103A, 103B) and/or memory (104A, 104B).

In embodiments where each of communication terminals 101A and 101Bcommunicates directly with a separate telecommunication network,terminals 101A and 101B need not directly communicate with the same typeof network. For example, terminal 101A could communicate directly with a3G network and terminal 101B could communicate directly with an EVDOnetwork. In some embodiments, terminals 101A and 101B may eachcommunicate directly with each other and/or a common access network.

Although certain embodiments include two communication terminals thatcommunicate directly with one or more wide area wireless accessnetworks, this is only one example. In other embodiments, communicationterminals 101A and 101B communicate directly with a different type ofaccess network, and are themselves different types of communicationterminals. For example, terminal 101A and/or terminal 101B could be acomputer, a set top terminal, or some other type of communication devicethat communicates directly with telecommunication network that is awired access network. Examples of wired access networks include but arenot limited to a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network used to delivertelephony, data and other services to a premises over a coaxial drop, aFiber to the Home (FTTH) network used to deliver telephony, data andother services over a fiber optic link that terminates in a premises, aDigital Subscriber Device call signaling message (DSL) networkdelivering telephony, data and other services over a twisted pairconductor that terminates in a premises, etc. In embodiments wherecommunication terminal 101A communicates directly with a wired accessnetwork, network interface 102A may include one or more appropriateinterface components (e.g., a cable modem, an optical network terminal,a DSL modem) for communication over the access network medium and may beconfigured (via instructions stored in processor 103A and/or memory104A, for example) to communicate with the telecommunication networkusing the appropriate protocols. In embodiments where terminal 101Bcommunicates directly with a telecommunication network 112, networkinterface 102B similarly may include the appropriate components forcommunication over the telecommunication network and utilize theappropriate protocols.

In still other embodiments, one or more of communication terminals 101Aand 101B may communicate over a telecommunication network configured asa local wireless network link with an in-premises gateway, a femtocellor other device. In these embodiments, the gateway, femtocell or otherdevice may then relay communications from and to the terminal over anaccess network link. In some embodiments, for example, communicationterminal 101A, 101B may be a Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone (DECT)handset or some other type of local wireless network device. In suchembodiments, hardware interface 102A may include a short-range wirelesstransceiver for communication with a corresponding transceiver in agateway (or other relaying device) and may be configured (viainstructions stored in processor 103A and/or memory 104A, for example tocommunicate using the appropriate local wireless network protocols.Example types of local wireless networks that may be included as part oftelecommunication network 112 include but are not limited to DECTnetworks, WiFi networks according to IEEE 802.11, Cordless AdvancedTechnology—Internet and Quality (CAT-iq) networks, etc. In embodimentswhere terminal 101B communicates directly over a local wireless networklink, hardware interface 102B similarly includes the appropriatecomponents for communication over that local wireless network and isconfigured to communicate using the appropriate local wireless networkprotocols.

In still other embodiments, one or both of communication terminals 101Aand 101B may communicate over a telecommunication network configured asa wired local network link with a local gateway, router or otherelement, and with that other element then relaying communications fromand to the terminal over an access network link. Examples of local wirednetworks include Ethernet networks, Multimedia Over Coax Alliance (MOCA)networks, Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) networks, etc. In suchembodiments, the network interface 102A, 102B may include theappropriate hardware (e.g., an Ethernet card, a MOCA chipset, a DLNAchipset) for communication over the telecommunication network 112 whenconfigured to include a local network medium. The communication terminal101A, 101B may be further configured (e.g., by instructions stored inthe processor and/or memory) to communicate using the appropriate localnetwork protocols.

Again referring to FIG. 1, the network interface 102A, 102B may beconfigured to receive and demodulate/modulate and transmit communicationsignals to and/or from telecommunication network 112. Processor(s) 103A,103B may be configured to execute instructions so as to perform variousoperations as described herein and to control operation of othercomponents associated with the respective communication terminal(s)101A, 101B. Instructions may be stored in memory 104A as executable codeand/or as hard wired logic within processor 103A. Memory 104A may alsostore data sent or received by terminal 101A and/or other data used inoperation of terminal 101A. Processor(s) 103A, 103B may also beconfigured to perform one or more types of CODEC (coder/decoder)operations to convert data to audio, and/or audio to data associatedwith speaker/microphone 105A, 105B. Processor(s) 103A, 103B may also beconfigured to input and output data e.g., video data and/or touch data(including text and/or video messages) to and from a user interface107A, B.

Terminals 101A and 101B may be configurable to establish a voice callsession with one another. The voice call session may include full duplexcommunication sessions, half-duplex communications, “Push-to-Talk”communication sessions, and other types of sessions in which two userscan exchange communications. Each of communication terminals 101A and101B may also be configured to send and receive voice, textual, and/orvideo messages or other types of provisional messages. In somecircumstances, a user of communication terminal 101A may seek toestablish a session with communication terminal 101B when the user ofcommunication terminal 101B does not wish (or is not able) to conduct avoice conversation. Although the communication terminal 101B user couldsimply ignore a call session request from communication terminal 101A(e.g., not answer the incoming call request), communication terminal101B could allow that incoming call request to be directed to a mailsystem. Accordingly, communication terminals 101A and 101B are alsoconfigured so that a user of one communication terminal can specify thatanother communication terminal, requesting a voice call session, shouldbe requested or instructed to instead be sent to a mail system of theuser, the called party.

One or more aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in acomputer-usable data and/or computer-executable instructions, such as inone or more program modules (e.g., in memory 104A, 104B), executed byone or more computers or other devices (e.g., processor(s) 103A, 103B.Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor ina computer or other data processing device. The computer executableinstructions may be stored on one or more computer readable media suchas a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid statememory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, thefunctionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed asdesired in various embodiments. In addition, the functionality may beembodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such asintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and thelike. Particular data structures may be used to more effectivelyimplement one or more aspects of the disclosure, and such datastructures are contemplated within the scope of computer executableinstructions and computer-usable data described herein.

FIGS. 2 and 3 represent example communication flow diagrams showingaudio, textual and/or video messaging according to at least someembodiments. In exemplary embodiments, the communication flow diagramsrepresent one or more ENUM and/or call control messages sent across anIP network. In the embodiments of FIGS. 2 and 3, each of communicationterminals 101A and 101B may support a video and/or textual message tovoice mail feature. The video and/or textual message to voice mailfeature permits a communication terminal attempting to initiate a voicecall session (e.g., a calling party), to provide a video and/or textualmessage as part of a voice mail input if the requested session is notestablished. In the example of FIG. 2, user A inputs a textual and/orvideo message for a mail system (e.g., a voice mailbox, electronic mail,social media space, etc.) of a called party device at device callsignaling message 201. Device call signaling message 201 occurs prior toinitiation of a request for a voice call session between user A and userB. At device call signaling message 201, user A input the voice,textual, and/or video message that is pre-configured for sending to thecalled party. At device call signaling message 202, communicationterminal 101A for user A sends the voice, textual, and/or video messageto the network interface device 111A for user A where it may be stored.Concurrent with the voice, textual, and/or video message input at devicecall signaling message 201 or thereafter, user A may input aninstruction to enable network interface device 111A to send the voice,textual, and/or video message, with an audio signal (e.g., a voicemessage from user A) or alone, to a mail system of a called party if avoice call session with the called party is refused. Similarly,concurrent with the voice, textual, and/or video message sent to thenetwork interface device 111A at device call signaling message 203 orthereafter, communication terminal 101A may send an instruction toenable network interface device 111A to send the voice, textual, and/orvideo message, with an audio and/or video signal (e.g., a voice messagefrom user A) or alone, to a mail system of the called party if a voicecall session with the called party is refused. Alternatively, suchfeatures may be automatically enabled.

By call signaling message 203, user A of communication terminal 101A mayinitiate a request for voice call session with user B. In the embodimentof FIG. 2, user A may do so by inputting an identifier (e.g., a devicenumber) associated with communication terminal 101B and an instructionto begin the voice call session setup process (e.g., by pressing a callbutton after inputting a device number). In some embodiments, anidentifier may be associated with a user instead of a specific device.For example, a network may associate a particular device number or otheridentifier with a specific user, but that user may be able to receivecommunications through multiple devices. The network may then trackwhich of those devices is associated with the user at any given time andmay route communications to that device and/or to all devices associatedwith a given user at a given time.

In response to the user input of communication, such as a telephonecall, chat rooms, and other messaging services, signaling message 203,communication terminal 101A transmits a call request communication atdevice call signaling message 204 to network interface device 111A.Network Interface Device 111A may forward the request at device callsignaling message 205 to server 111B and server 111B may forward therequest to communication terminal 101B at device call signaling message206. FIG. 2 shows these and other communications going through networkinterface devices 111A and 111B instead of directly from communicationterminal 101A to communication terminal 101B. In practice,communications between communication terminals 101A and 101B (or betweenterminals and other network elements) could pass through variousintermediate elements of network(s) 109. In some cases an intermediateelement may simply re-encapsulate and/or relay a communication, while inother cases an intermediate element may add or remove data or otherwisemodify a communication before sending that communication to anotherelement. As used herein, “communication” does not require that data besent in a continuous stream. For example, data packets of a firstcommunication could be intermingled with data packets of an unrelatedsecond communication, with first communication packets identified andreassembled at a destination.

After receiving the communication signaling message 206, communicationterminal 101B exchanges one or more signaling communications at devicecall signaling messages 207 and 208 with user B as part of an exchange.Communication terminal 101A, communication terminal 101B, networkinterface device 111A, network interface device 111B, andtelecommunication network 112 may be configured to permit data exchangebetween (or with regard to) communication terminals 101A and 101B, but avoice call session is not established. During the signaling exchange,users A and B cannot speak with each other using communication terminals101A and 101B. However, communication terminal 101A may output an audiosignal through speaker 105A or other indicator that the recipientcommunication terminal is “ringing,” and communication terminal 101B mayprovide an audio, visual and/or tactile (e.g., vibration) indicator ofthe received request for a voice call session.

Upon refusal or any other type of unavailability of user B to completethe voice call session, communication terminal 101B, sends acommunication to communication terminal 101A via device call signalingmessages 209, 210, and 211 indicating that the request for a voice callsession is refused. Such communication to communication terminal 101Amay be via (or may otherwise include) a text and/or video message,and/or may include other types of data that can be output (device callsignaling message 212) to the user of communication terminal 101A (e.g.,a pre-recorded voice and/or video message, a picture or other graphic,etc.). Upon receiving the communication of device call signaling message211, communication terminal 101A recognizes that the recipientcommunication terminal (and/or its user) has refused the request for avoice call session. As a result, communication terminal 101A may thensend a communication to server 111B via device call signaling messages213 and 214 acknowledging receipt of the communication of refusal or anyother type of unavailability and forwarding to the mail system ofcommunication terminal 101B. In response, server 111B may recognize thatcommunication terminal 101A understood the unavailability and forwardingcommunication and may be planning to leave a voice mail message.

Concurrent with the acknowledgement communication at call signalingmessage 214 or thereafter, network interface device 111A may beconfigured to send the voice, textual, and/or video message or othertypes of provisional messages to the server 111B as part of the voicemail message left with the mail system of user B. The voice mail messagemay include an audio signal that accompanies the voice, textual, and/orvideo message. For example, the audio and/or video message may be anaudio and/or video signal of the user A stating, “Jim, I hope you canmake the event.” The voice, textual, and/or video message thataccompanies this audio signal may include specific details of the eventin question, such as where and when. User A may not want to leave avoice recording of such information in case the translation component ofthe called party's mail system misinterprets the audio message. In thismanner, user A is assured that the voice, textual, and/or video messageinformation will be accurately received by the user B when accessing hismail system.

At device call signaling message 215, user B may access hiscommunication terminal 101B to gain access to his mail system at server111B. A request to access the mail system is sent at device callsignaling message 216. Network interface device 111B may decode thevoice, textual, and/or video message from user A and send an audioand/or video signal representative of the voice message to communicationterminal 101B at device call signaling message 217. The audio signalrepresentative of the voice, textual, and/or video message may beoutputted to user B at device call signaling message 218. In someembodiments, one or more of the operations performed by communicationterminal 101A and/or 101B could be performed by a call server, such asnetwork interface device 111A and/or 111B, or other element intelecommunication network 112 (see FIG. 1).

FIG. 3 is an exemplary communication diagram showing an audio, textualand/or video messaging or other types of provisional messaging featureaccording to at least some embodiments. As in the embodiments of FIG. 2,communication terminals 101A and 101B each may support the textualand/or video message feature. In the example of FIG. 3, user A inputs atextual and/or video message for a mail system of a called party deviceat device call signaling message 301. Device call signaling message 301may occur prior to initiation of a request for a voice call sessionbetween user A and user B. At device call signaling message 301, user Amay input the textual and/or video message that is pre-configured forsending to the called party. At device call signaling message 302,communication terminal 101A for user A sends the textual and/or videomessage to the network interface device 111A for user A where it may bestored. Concurrent with the textual and/or video message input at devicecall signaling message 301 or thereafter, user A may input aninstruction to enable network interface device 111A to send the textualand/or video message, with an audio and/or video signal (e.g., a voiceand/or video message from user A), to a mail system of a called party ifa voice call session with the called party is refused. Similarly,concurrent with the textual and/or video message sent to the networkinterface device 111A at device call signaling message 303 orthereafter, communication terminal 101A may send an instruction toenable network interface device 111A to send the textual and/or videomessage, with an audio signal (e.g., a voice message from user A) oralone, to a mail system of the called party if a voice call session withthe called party is refused. Alternatively, such features may beautomatically enabled. The audio and/or video messages may be sent atthe same time as the attempted call or at a time spaced from theattempted call. For example, if the communication terminal is busy andmay only support one call (e.g., as on Verizon's network), then thecommunication terminal and/or network may be configured to store theaudio and/or video text message and to deliver the message to the useronce the call has ended and high speed signaling has resumed.

In the case where the message is textual only, the message may be sentusing the out of band signaling channel normally associated with textmessaging (e.g., the SS7 signaling channel). However, where the messageis a video and/or audio message, typically these messages will not beaccommodated through normally SS7 signaling. Accordingly, these messagesmay need to be stored until the called party terminates his or her phonesession in order to initiate the transfer. Network interface devices111A, 111B and/or telecommunication network 112 can determine whether ornot first communication terminal is on a network that may only processone connection at a time. For example, where the first communicationterminal is connect to an IP network through an 802.11 connection, itmay be able to accept voice and/or video messages. However, where thefirst communication terminal 101A, 101B is connected to a wirelessconnection (e.g., 3G, 4G), the voice and/or video message may need to bestored by telecommunication system 112 until such time as thecommunication terminal 101A, 101B is able to accept the message.

At device call signaling message 303, user A of communication terminal101A initiates a request for voice call session with user B. In theembodiment of FIG. 3, user A may do so by inputting an identifier (e.g.,a telephone number) associated with communication terminal 101B and aninstruction to begin the voice call session setup process (e.g., bypressing a call button after inputting a telephone number). In someembodiments, an identifier may be associated with a user instead of aspecific device. For example, a network may associate a particulartelephone number or other identifier with a specific user, but that usermay be able to receive communications through multiple devices. Thenetwork may then track which of those devices is associated with theuser at any given time and may route communications to that device ordevices.

In response to the user input of call signaling message 303,communication terminal 101A may be configured to transmit a call requestcommunication at device call signaling message 304 to network interfacedevice 111A. Network Interface Device 111A may forward the request atdevice call signaling message 305 to server 111B and server 111B mayforward the request to communication terminal 101B at device callsignaling message 306. FIG. 3 shows these and other communications goingthrough network interface devices 111A and 111B instead of directly fromcommunication terminal 101A to communication terminal 101B. In practice,communications between communication terminals 101A and 101B (or betweencommunication terminals and other network elements) could pass throughvarious intermediate elements of telecommunication interface device 112.In some cases an intermediate element may simply re-encapsulate and/orrelay a communication, while in other cases an intermediate element mayadd or remove data or otherwise modify a communication before sendingthat communication to another element.

After receiving the communication of device call signaling message 306,communication terminal 101B exchanges one or more signalingcommunications at device call signaling messages 307 and 308 withcommunication terminal 101B as part of a signaling exchange. Terminal101A, communication terminal 101B, network interface device 111A, server111B, and network(s) 109 are configured to permit data exchange between(or with regard to) communication terminals 101A and 101B, but a voicecall session is not established. During the signaling exchange, users Aand B cannot speak with each other using communication terminals 101Aand 101B. However, communication terminal 101A may output an audioand/or video signal through speaker 105A and/or user interface 107A orother indicator that the recipient communication terminal is “ringing,”and communication terminal 101B may provide an audio, visual and/ortactile (e.g., vibration) indicator of the received request for a voicecall session.

Upon unavailability of user B to complete the voice call session,communication terminal 101B, sends a communication to communicationterminal 101A via device call signaling messages 309, 310, and 311indicating that the request for a voice call session is refused. Suchcommunication to communication terminal 101A may be via (or mayotherwise include) a text and/or video message, and/or may include othertypes of data that can be output (device call signaling message 312) tothe user of communication terminal 101A (e.g., a pre-recorded voicemessage, a picture or other graphic, etc.). Upon receiving thecommunication of device call signaling message 311, communicationterminal 101A recognizes that the recipient communication terminal(and/or its user) has refused the request for a voice call session. As aresult, communication terminal 101A may then send a communication toserver 111B via device call signaling messages 313 and 314 acknowledgingreceipt of the communication of unavailability and forwarding to themail system of communication terminal 101B. In response, server 111B mayrecognize that communication terminal 101A understood the unavailabilityand forwarding communication and may be planning to leave a voice mailmessage.

Concurrent with the acknowledgement communication at device callsignaling message 314 or thereafter, network interface device 111A maybe configured to send the voice, textual, and/or video message to theserver 111B as part of the voice mail message left with the mail systemof user B. The voice mail message may include an audio and/or videosignal that accompanies the voice, textual, and/or video message. Atdevice call signaling message 315, server 111B may decode the voice,textual, and/or video message from user A and send the unmodified textof the voice, textual, and/or video message to communication terminal101B at device call signaling message 316. In certain exemplaryembodiments, the audio and/or video message may be displayed on the userinterface 107B along with an overlay of the user's name and/or callingnumber. The unmodified text and/or video may be forwarded to the calledparty's communication terminal, such as communication terminal 101B, ina preferred manner of user B. For example, user B may request to receiveunmodified text and/or video as an email message, as a text message, asboth, and/or in some other manner. The communication received at devicecall signaling message 316 by communication terminal 101B may beoutputted to user B at device call signaling message 317. In someembodiments, one or more of the operations performed by communicationterminal 101A and/or 101B could be performed by a call server, such asnetwork interface device 111A and/or 111B, or other element intelecommunication network 112 (see FIG. 1).

In exemplary embodiments, the call flow diagrams of FIGS. 2 and 3 may bevariously implemented. In one embodiment, they may use datagram deliveryprotocol (DDP) to provide datagram delivery and routing serviceincluding carrying source and destination service socket numbers. In oneexemplary embodiment, long format DDP is utilized including destinationnetwork number, node address and/or socket address. In still furtherembodiments, routing table maintenance protocol RTMP may be utilized toprovide routing messages over suitable networks such as AppleTalknetworks. In still further embodiments, split horizon routing protocolsmay be utilized. For example, the RTMP routing tables may include anindication of whether the device is enabled to receive text and/or videomessages in its mail system. In alternate embodiments, the name bindingprotocol (NBP) may be utilized to provide an indication of whether theindividual communication terminal 101A, 101B may be enabled to receiveaudio and/or video communications by associating the voice mailparameters with certain name lookup requests. In certain embodiments,the voice, textual, and/or video messages or other types of provisionalmessages may be sent encased in ATP and/or AppleTalk data streamprotocol (ADSP) including a source ID, destination ID, send sequencenumber, receive sequence number, and/or window size. In still furtherembodiments, the video and/or audio files may be communicated usingAppleTalk filing protocol (AFP) which enables transfer and file sharingbetween various communication terminals and/or device ontelecommunication network 112.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process and showingoperations performed by a server of a calling communication terminalthat supports a voice, textual, and/or video message or other types ofprovisional message feature (e.g., server 101A) according to at leastsome embodiments. Although the operations shown in the process of FIG. 4may be performed by a server as part of the communication sequencesshown in FIGS. 2-3, the communication sequences of FIGS. 2-3 could alsobe performed by a server performing operations according to a processother than that reflected by FIG. 4. A person of ordinary skill willalso appreciate that operations represented by certain steps of FIG. 4could be performed by other devices, such as communication terminal 101Aand/or communication terminal 101B.

At step 401, a computing device receives a voice, textual, and/or videomessage or other types of provisional message inputted by user. Such avoice, textual, and/or video message may be for a specific called partyor may be for a group of individuals, one or more of which may be acalled party. Such a voice, textual, and/or video message may beassociated with profile date of the calling party. Such profile data mayinclude a contacts listing or listing of favorite individuals in whichto call. Such profile data may be maintained on a calling party'scommunication terminal, such as communication terminal 101A, at anetwork interface device 111A of the calling party, and/or withinnetworked storage (e.g., cloud storage), such as within network 109, andor any other common storage location.

Different individuals may have different messages. Step 403 addressesmultiple voice, textual, and/or video messages. In step 403, adetermination may be made as to whether there are more voice, textual,and/or video messages received by the computing device. If an additionalvoice, textual, and/or video message is received, the process returns tostep 401. If there are no additional voice, textual, and/or videomessages received, the process moves to step 405.

In step 405, the computing device may receive an instruction to enablesending of a voice, textual, and/or video message to a called party'smail system if a signal is received that a request for a voice callsession is proceeding to a voice mail of the called party. Such aninstruction may be made by way of an interactive voice recognition basedsystem, such as a calling party entering a pressing “1” to leave a firstvoice, textual, and/or video message (such as “Please call me backASAP!) or pressing “2” to leave a second voice, textual, and/or videomessage (such as “Just checking in”). In other embodiments, theinstruction to enable sending of a voice, textual, and/or video messagemay be by an on device call signaling message access from a callingparty communication terminal. In exemplary embodiments, the called partyrings busy, the calling party is presented with a series of icons forsending including voice, textual, and/or video precaned messages. Thesemessages can be setup as part of the phone setup procedure. For example,a calling party communication terminal may input voice, textual, and/orvideo messages and/or enablement instructions for a computing device tobe able to send voice, textual, and/or video messages to called partiesthrough a website. A computing device, such as network interface device111A, may access the voice, textual, and/or video message and/orenablement instructions per called party identifier and/or for one ormore groups of called parties. Other manners for enabling a computingdevice to send one or more voice, textual, and/or video messages arealso included herein.

Proceeding to step 407, the computing device receives user inputindicating that a voice call session to a called party should berequested. After receiving that input, the computing device optionallymay send a communication, to a server of the called party, requesting avoice call session with the called party at step 409. Subsequently, thecomputing device receives a communication in response to the voice callsession request at step 411. The computing device then, at step 413,determines if the communication received in step 411 is anunavailability of the requested voice call session and if an indicationof call forwarding to a mail system of the called party has beenreceived. If not, the process continues to step 415 where the voice callsession is commenced by connecting the called party to the calling partyafter which the process ends. In such a circumstance, no voice, textual,and/or video message is sent to the mail system of the called party.

If the computing device, at step 413, determines that the communicationreceived in step 411 is an unavailability of the requested voice callsession and that the call is being directed to the mail system of thecalled party, the process moves to step 417 where the computing devicemay determine the voice, textual, and/or video message to send to themail system of the called party. The determination in 417 of the voice,textual, and/or video message to send may be just one voice, textual,and/or video message that was received by the calling device in step 401or may be based upon a calling party identification of a selected voice,textual, and/or video message among a plurality of voice, textual,and/or video messages. For example, the determination in step 417 may bethe computing device identifying the called party and referencingprofile data of the calling party to see if the called party has avoice, textual, and/or video message to be sent in such circumstances.In such an example, the called party may be a child and there may alwaysonly be one voice, textual, and/or video message associated with thatcalled party of “Please call me now.” As such, the computing device candetermine based on a single voice, textual, and/or video message for acalled party.

In the example where there are multiple voice, textual, and/or videomessage that may be sent, the computing device may prompt a callingparty to identify the particular voice, textual, and/or video message tobe sent or may receive a selection of a desired voice, textual, and/orvideo message to be sent. For example, between steps 401 and 403 theremay have been two voice, textual, and/or video messages received. Thecomputing device may prompt the calling party with an option to selectwhich voice, textual, and/or video message of the two voice, textual,and/or video messages to send to the mail system of the called party. Insome embodiments, the calling party may press a numeric or alphanumericinput on her terminal device, such as communication terminal 101A. Inother embodiments the voice, textual, and/or video message may includeparameters for sending, such as send a first voice, textual, and/orvideo message if before noon or send a second voice, textual, and/orvideo message if noon or later in the day. In still other instances, thevoice, textual, and/or video message may be determined based upon anarea code of the called party, whether the called party is part of somegroup of called parties, such as individuals at work, friends, family,or clients, and/or based upon some other criteria, such as a history ofcalls reflecting the frequency of calls to that called party.

Proceeding to step 419, a determination may be made as to whether anaudio signal is to accompany the voice, textual, and/or video message.For example, a prompt may be provided to a calling party to inquire asto whether the calling party wishes to leave an accompanying voice mailmessage for the called party. Such an example may be a case where thecalling party wants to personalize a message with her voice while stillincluding the voice, textual, and/or video message to ensure that thecalled party's mail system properly decodes the message for the calledparty. In such an example, the computing device receives the voice inputaudio signal from the calling party at step 421. If an audio signal isnot to accompany the voice, textual, and/or video message at step 419,the process moves to step 423.

In step 423, a determination may be made as to whether a marker isincluded in the voice, textual, and/or video message. The marker may bea field for insertion of other data with the voice, textual, and/orvideo message. For example, the determined voice, textual, and/or videomessage from step 417 may recite:

Dear [MARKER], I hope that you can make my party on June 10. See youthen!

The marker may be the field shown above as [MARKER]. In such a case, thecomputing device may remove the marker and insert an appropriate entryinto that area of the voice, textual, and/or video message. For example,the name of the called party may be inserted in the place of the marker.As such, the voice, textual, and/or video message for sending would thenrecite:

Dear Jim, I hope that you can make my party on June 10. See you then!

Accordingly, a voice, textual, and/or video message that may be used formultiple called parties still may be personalized prior to sending to aparticular called party.

If at least one marker is included in the voice, textual, and/or videomessage in step 417, the computing device populates the marker field(s)as needed at step 425 before proceeding to step 427. If no markers areincluded form step 423, the process moves to step 427. In still furtherembodiments, the message may relate to the user's predefined parameterssuch as work hours, entries on the calendar (“I am in a meeting”) orother parameters that would allow for easy customization of the message.

In step 427, the voice, textual, and/or video message may be sent to themail system of the called party. In the example of an audio signalaccompanying the textual messaging, call origination informationregarding the calling party may be sent with the voice, textual, and/orvideo message to allow for the audio signal from step 421 to accompanythe voice, textual, and/or video message. The voice, textual, and/orvideo message may be sent from network interface device 111A to networkinterface 111B. Subsequently, a called party may access his mail systemto receive the voice, textual, and/or video message in a preferredmanner, such as via email, via text message, and/or in some otherdesired manner.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process and showingoperations performed by a calling party communication terminal thatsupports a voice, textual, and/or video message or other types ofprovisional message feature (e.g., communication terminal 101A)according to at least some embodiments. Although the operations shown inFIG. 5 may be performed by calling party communication terminal as partof the communication sequences shown in FIGS. 2-3, the communicationsequences of FIGS. 2-3 could also be performed by a calling partycommunication terminal performing operations according to a processother than that reflected by FIG. 5. A person of ordinary skill willreadily appreciate, however, that operations represented by certainsteps of FIG. 5 could be performed by other devices, such as networkinterface devices 111A and/or 111B.

At step 501, a computing device sends a voice, textual, and/or videomessage or other types of provisional message inputted by user. Such avoice, textual, and/or video message may be for a specific called partyor may be for a group of individuals, one or more of which may be acalled party. Such a voice, textual, and/or video message may beassociated with profile date of the calling party. Such profile data mayinclude a contacts listing or listing of favorite individuals in whichto call. Such profile data may be maintained on a calling party'sterminal, such as communication terminal 101A, and/or at a networkinterface device 111A of the calling party. Different individuals mayhave different messages.

In step 503, the computing device may send an instruction to enable aserver of the calling party computing device to send a voice, textual,and/or video message to a called party's mail system if a signal isreceived by the server that a request for a voice call session isproceeding to a voice mail of the called party. Such an instruction maybe made by way of an interactive voice recognition based system, such asa calling party entering a pressing “1” to leave a first voice, textual,and/or video message (such as “Please call me back ASAP!) or pressing“2” to leave a second voice, textual, and/or video message (such as“Just checking in”). In other embodiments, the instruction to enable theserver to send a voice, textual, and/or video message may be by an ondevice call signaling message access from a calling party computingdevice. For example, a calling party communication terminal may inputvoice, textual, and/or video messages and/or enablement instructions fora computing device to be able to send voice, textual, and/or videomessage to called parties through a website. A computing device, such ascommunication terminal 101A, may send the voice, textual, and/or videomessage and/or enablement instructions per called party identifierand/or for one or more groups of called parties. Other manners forenabling a server to send one or more voice, textual, and/or videomessages are also included herein.

Proceeding to step 505, the computing device sends a request for a voicecall session to a called party. Such a request may originate from acalling party in any of a number of different manners, including thecalling party entering a telephone number into communication terminal101A, whether by digit entry, by voice activation, and/or by selectionfrom a list of contacts. The computing device then, at step 507,determines if the voice call session requested in step 505 is refusedand if an indication of call forwarding to a mail system of the calledparty has been received. If not, the process continues to step 509 wherethe voice call session is commenced by connecting the called party tothe calling party after which the process ends. In such a circumstance,no voice, textual, and/or video message is sent to the mail system ofthe called party.

If the computing device, at step 507, determines that the requestedvoice call session in step 505 is refused and that the call is beingdirected to the mail system of the called party, the process moves tostep 511 where the computing device may determine whether a prompt isneeded to determine the voice, textual, and/or video message to send tothe mail system of the called party. Such an example may be the casewhere a calling party desires to select between a plurality of voice,textual, and/or video messages to send. If there is no need to provide aprompt, such as the case where there is only one voice, textual, and/orvideo message to be sent, the process moves to step 515. If a prompt isneeded in step 511, the process moves to step 513 where the computingdevice sends an identifier of the selected voice, textual, and/or videomessage to a server, such as network interface device 111A. One examplemay be an interactive voice recognition system where a user is promptedto choose between one of multiple options and to enter a selected voice,textual, and/or video message on an input component of the computingdevice, such as the numeric “1” on a keypad of communication terminal101A. Following step 513, the process moves to step 515.

Proceeding to step 515, a determination may be made as to whether anaudio signal is to accompany the voice, textual, and/or video message.For example, a prompt may be provided to a calling party to inquire asto whether the calling party wishes to leave an accompanying voice mailmessage for the called party. In such an example where an audio signalis desired, the computing device receives the voice input audio signalfrom the calling party and sends it to the server, such as networkinterface device 111A, at step 517 before the process ends. If an audiosignal is not to accompany the voice, textual, and/or video message atstep 515, the process ends. Subsequently, the server for the callingparty, such as network interface device 111A for communication terminal101A, sends the voice, textual, and/or video message to the mail systemof the called party. Such as example for operation of the networkinterface device 111A is illustratively shown in FIG. 4.

In at least some embodiments, and as described above, certaincommunications can be sent during a signaling exchange when a voice callsession has not been established. In some embodiments one or more othermessages can be sent without establishing the voice call sessionrequested by the calling party communication terminal. For example, acommunication refusing the requested voice call session could include atone and/or voice recording played through the speaker of the callingparty communication terminal. Similarly, a communication indicating thatthe called party communication terminal supports the text messagingfeature could include a tone or voice recording, played through thecalling party communication terminal speaker, indicating such.

Although example embodiments are described above, the various featuresand steps may be combined, divided, omitted, rearranged, revised and/oraugmented in any desired manner, depending on the specific outcomeand/or application. Various alterations, modifications, and improvementswill readily occur to those skilled in art. Such alterations,modifications, and improvements as are made obvious by this disclosureare intended to be part of this description though not expressly statedherein, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of exampleonly, and not limiting. This patent is limited only as defined in thefollowing claims and equivalents thereto.

1. A method comprising: receiving, from a calling party device, a firstprovisional message for a mail system of a called party device;receiving a second provisional message for the mail system of the calledparty device; sending a first communication requesting a voice callsession with the called party device; receiving a second communicationcomprising an indication of an unavailability of the requested voicecall session and an indication of forwarding to the mail system of thecalled party device; and determining, responsive to the secondcommunication, whether to send the first provisional message with callorigination information enabling an audio signal to accompany the firstprovisional message or the second provisional message to the mail systemof the called party device.